Kaloogian Slams Press Coverage of Iraq With Bogus Photo (Its made the MSM)

[kpete]

Congressional Candidate Slams Press Coverage of Iraq--With Bogus Photo

By E&P Staff

Published: March 29, 2006 2:30 PM ET

NEW YORK How far will critics of media coverage of the Iraq war go to prove reporters are wrongly focusing on the negative?

One answer came this week, in a shocking if amusing episode featuring one Howard Kaloogian, a leading Republican running for the seat in Congress recently vacated by indicted Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

He posted on the official Web site for his campaign a picture taken in “downtown Baghdad,” he said, during his visit to the city, which supposedly indicated that the media was wrong about the level of violence in the city. “We took this photo of downtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq,” he wrote. “Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."

But the blogosphere quickly smelled a rat. The photo featured people who didn’t seem dressed quite right for Iraq, and signs and billboards that looked off, too. In the now-familiar pattern, the ace detective work leaped from obscure blogs to the well-known (Talking Points Memo, Eschaton, Attytood, more), and back again, as eagle-eyed experts proposed alternative locales, with Turkey a likely suspect.

In less than a day, it was over. “Jem6X” at the popular DailyKos blog confirmed the street scene was in Istanbul, not Baghdad.

Tipped off by someone who recognized the actual intersection in Istanbul, Jem went through online photo galleries and in a matter of minutes today found a snap taken by a “Faruk” that lined up with the “Baghdad” photo in numerous conclusive ways. Game, set, and match to the blogosphere.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002274257

[pinniped]

1. Since Iraq is sooooooo calm and safe, will he be sponsoring....

tour groups from Merka over there for sightseeing?

[gratuitous]

2. Kaloogian: Just give it up

Free advice, and worth every penny, from your old pal gratuitous.

[Vinnie From Indy]

24. LOL! Well done!

good advice!

[Dhalgren]

3. Kudos to DU! This place f-ing rocks!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

[QuettaKid]

6. Who Rocks !? ?

WE DO - DU ! ! :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. E & P even!!

that's what a story with legs looks like!

:popcorn:

[CatWoman]

5. Game, set, match to the blogosphere!!!

I like that!! :D

[Virginia Dare]

7. Hold out your hands Kaloogian...

here's your ass!

:applause:

[mdmc]

9. I still haven't seen the pics

[reichstag911]

12. Here's the match:

?v=0

[mdmc]

17. thanks

[leftchick]

13. here you go....

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/29/13339/2816

[mdmc]

18. thanks

[reichstag911]

14. And the original (from Kaloogian's site):

[mdmc]

19. thanks

[mdmc]

16. thanks

[Kali]

8. ...YES!

:woohoo:

[stop the bleeding]

10. Congrats DU - I am the 1st to nominate this????????

Hello we as in DU made a difference in the battle of lies.

We fought back and won this battle, but we still have to keep fighting here in the trenches to win the war.

:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause: to all of DU

[DinahMoeHum]

11. Da-da dum dum dum. . .another one bites the dust!

Looks like we bloggers and netroots people bagged another trophy!

The blogs caught Ben Domenech at the WaPo last week for plagiarism.

This week it's Kaloogian.


What can I say? We rock at DU, DailyKos, etc!

:yourock:

[AuntiBush]

15. K&N

DU: Best place that leads you to all the news and inside information, long before anyone else knows it or gets it.

Congrats DU! You've more then earned it.

[warrens]

20. The Kaloog probably never left the Green Zone

Although I have a mental image of him on a Baghdad street with some urchins giving the thumbs up while, invisible to him but visible to the viewer, 20 insurgents fight over who gets to blow his stupid head off.

[file83]

22. Apparently he was in the "Green Zone": He was HIGH !!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. Maybe he didn't actually reach Iraq at all! It's dangerous, and after all

he already had LOTS of photos! What a stupid slimeball. This outrage has been reported in places like Italy and the UK. I'd love to see Keith Olbermann's take on it. Jon Stewart, too, could do a riff like the one in this hilarious thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x784983
thread title (3-29-06 GD): More photos of things going great in Baghdad
Hilarious! Photos from all over the world – favorite: the “banana burka” from Rio

[RazzleDazzle]

27. You know the thumbs up gesture is equivalent to our "finger"

don't you? That was another part of what made the Lyndie England photos so distressing and offensive to the Iraqis.

[WinkyDink]

21. I am inordinately proud to have been on-board for this moment!

Yee-HAW!

[kpete]

23. Some History on Kaloogian's Move America Forward

Some History on Kaloogian's Move America Forward
By Paul Kiel - March 29, 2006, 4:29 PM

Howard Kaloogian's "Truth Tour" to Iraq in July, 2005 was sponsored by Move America Forward, a non-profit, "non-partisan" outfit that Kaloogian founded. You might have never heard of them before, but you certainly know their work. It includes:

-- Producing a series of TV ads late last year that claimed Iraq did in fact have WMDs;

-- Shuttling pro-war protestors to Crawford to counter Cindy Sheehan's "Camp Casey" as part of their "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" tour; http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/DailyFile/tentative_schedule_for_you_dont_speak_for_me_cindy_tour/

-- a campaign supporting John Bolton's contentious nomination" for UN ambassador - including financing the ad campaign in Ohio that attacked Sen. George Voinivich (R-OH) for not backing Bolton;

-- backing U.S. detention policies at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by selling 'I Gitmo' bumper stickers."
http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/MAF/FullNewsItem/i_love_gitmo_campaign_launched/

The "Truth Tour" sent five conservative radio-talk-show hosts to U.S. military bases in Baghdad for "a week of upbeat broadcasts." http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113572887635032543-MBBcaDkXJAQBlIrm5UujD1fj5qw_20061227.html?mod=rss_free

And according to the WSJ, the group grew out of the successful 2003 recall effort in California.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000218.php

[Old and In the Way]

26. So where are the pics taken in Baghdad? Obviously, if this was

a mix-up by a low level staffer, there must be real pics that must be similar which supports Kaloogian's comments. Or was the pic notes also a mistake? Maybe, he meant to say ther opposite?

Another Lying Republican Weasel who won't take responsibility when caught in an act of deception.

[Imagevision]

28. Kaloogian Slams Press Coverage? - again! - slam the messenger!! putz!